the shadow man
by burn slow
Summary: the first assassin from assassin's creed is Drago Bludvest's brother, he must aid in the fight to defend Berk.


R means rus, Drago, Jaeger, and his group speak it. D means draconic, the dragons, Hiccup, and Jaeger speak that. Anything else is in English, all characters understand it, only humans speak it.

Prologue: as seen by Jaeger

I need to leave; now, if I stay I will be executed, so the plan needs to be simple. The guards will have a ten minute break soon and I know where my stuff is. I have fashioned a lock pick and a shiv out of some metal scraps, the escape may go bad. I watch the guards leave on a ten minute perimeter check; my chance is now or never. I pick the lock quickly and creep down the hallway a wayward guard spots me, most likely trying to sneak a sip of liquor on his tedious job. I silence him with a few dirty gouges, a rupturing jab and finally, a kill shot. He is silent, I steel his flask and take a small swig, hmm, rum, expensive. I continue my navigation without any interruptions. I find my equipment and take it, but I only grab so much before I am spotted again. Not willing to risk precious seconds in a fight, I flee. I make top deck only to find a score more guards chasing me. I slash a rope that is holding a small boat and I dive off of the ship after it, a hard impact awaits me on the bottom of my fall. *thud*

Dark, that is all I see, and I feel cold, but dry. It is obviously night time as the moon and the stars are out when I roll over. I am on a boat well out at sea, no land in sight. I take inventory, some of my weapons are missing, and I am left with my bandolier kit of darts and throwing weapons and a hip holstered mace. On the way out I was able to snag my wrist equipment and my packs of food and travel equipment.

Wait, on my way out of what? I just realized that I haven't a single clue as to what happened leading up to this, just sailing on a boat, then I notice the light sail and the massive crossbow onboard. "So I am on a fast scout ship then" I think silently to myself, luckily it is small enough for a crew of one. I let out the sail and set a course due northwest, the wind playing slightly with my hair.

I put up a hood against the cold, I am glad for this cloak; otherwise I would die of cold before I had any prospect of reaching land. I notice a sand pit in the middle of the ship and some fresh dry wood in the pit, glistening with oil, so I light it and roast some meat over it; I have fifteen days of rations, and twenty days of fresh water. So I stay on course, using the stars to guide me. I still have no idea where I am headed, but in this weather the tropics are no place to be, also I am still relying on luck for most of my trip, because I can't feel anything in this cold, but a nice mug of ale and a pot of beef stew do wonders for that, at least I kept my cooking supplies.

My voyage is two days, and completely uneventful, I ate, drank, slept, whistled tunes, and told stories to no one in particular. See what I mean, entirely uneventful. On the third day I found land, and sailed around to find an empty cove. I beached the ship, more of a boat really, and left most of my equipment on board.

All I took was a flagon of cider, a third of a day's ration, and my wrist equipment. I stick to the shadows and find my way through a particularly uncooperative forest. I come upon a village, it is almost morning by now and already I smell steel burning and fish roasting. Vikings probably, I would guess a smaller portion of a larger tribe, set up here to fish in the summer.

I sneak into town, where I look around for signs of life. The bright colored banners and the multitude of fires tells me that a festival is probably staring soon, but I do not have time to figure out what, as I hear the slight dragging of metal on cobblestone and figure that someone is trying to sneak up on me. I spin around quickly and pop out the blades that hide under my wrists, I stand on guard, waiting for the first blow to come, but there is no sword that was clumsily let drag on the ground, it was a boy's prosthetic leg.

I retract the blades and tell him to take me to the chief of wherever I was. He replies with a hint of annoyance

"That would be me".

I repeat myself, maybe he was too tired to understand a word that I said, but the answer remains the same, he is the chief of the village, it is called berk. I ask him

"What is going and why are there so many banners"

"Dragon race today" he replies, without a hint of sarcasm this time.

"Dragon racing, seriously?" I ask, somewhat shocked.

He simply nods and leads me to a certain area of the village. I stare in disbelief, "so the rumors are true" I gasp. A fully grown, flying reptile appears through the misty streets and lands right in front of me. He bares his teeth and growls at me; I take up a defensive and draw my wrist mounted blowgun. This boy, the chief, chuckles and tells me to put it away, the dragon will kill me before I can move if I do not. So I listen to him, as though I had a choice.

The beast is still wary so I take out a charm that an old friend gave me and show it to him, as though it would have any effect. Surprisingly, it calms him. I ask the kid why he has not called the village to meet the newcomer, moreover, why he has not at least asked what I was doing here. He simply replies with a shrug and says that when they wake up they will all see the strange man in the hooded cloak. I ask when the race will happen, he replies "when the sun comes up over the horizon". I have no particular interest in the event, but it seems to be a big deal, as he has painted the dragon with war paint.

I notice the paint that he is applying himself and comment that it has similar characteristics to the dragon's paint. He replies as though it were obvious "yeah, I am riding him". At this point I actually lose it. I do not know why but I hear a crunch of feet running on gravel and turn around to see my brother's best friend, dead at the hands of, of my brother. His wise face marred with burns and scars from a, no, no way, from a dragon. I slide out my blades and start running. The chief shouts something about a storm flier and all of a sudden, I am blocked in by spikes and a green foul-smelling gas. I see a spark and the gas ignites into a loud explosion.

Through the smoke I see the chief as well as two more dragons, both complete with riders. The chief has something flaming in his hands and I judge the situation, I will not escape with all of this attention. So I retract the blades and use my own wits to form a backrest on one of the spikes. He asks me if I am done trying to kill his dragon, I ask him what he is talking about. He says, in the most thunderous roar I could expect to hear from someone his size, "your blades nearly took off my dragon's good half of his tail".

I inspect them with caution, expecting to see blood, but instead just a nick in the left blade, now I need to sharpen it again. As I busy myself sharpening it he continues pushing me with questions, "why are you here, are you one of Drago's soldiers?" I wince at my brother's name.

"Never compare me to that lying soulless bastard." I hiss with my face set ablaze with fury. And follow with "you do mean Bludvest, right?" he nods in his peculiar way again, and I use a small gas pellet to distract them while I use my grappling hook to pull myself into a tree nearby. I watch with pity as they cough and choke and stumble blindly through the cloud, they obviously have never dealt with tear gas. When it finally clears they notice my absence and panic.

I throw a whisper into their midst. They turn around and find me in my perch. The chief tells me to come down; I use the spikes on my palms and scale the large trunk with little trouble. He is impressed with this skill. I tell him that I used to have to escape my brother's rampages very quickly and that it was a simple device used to get out of his way, usually followed up by a sedation dart in his neck. As I show him the series of small spikes on my palms and offer to make him some, he thanks me and says "I may have to take you up on that offer".

I hear a whistling sound and recognize it to be a battle axe. I quickly block the blow with my palm spikes and follow up with my wrist blades, one point first at the attacker's neck, the other on a muscle on his axe arm, correction, at her axe arm. This girl is my age at best, maybe a year or two older. I feel warmth radiating near my neck. I look down to see a flaming blade inches from my neck, it is the chief's. I retract my blades and get away with my hands up. The chief tells me to get on my knees, paying no real attention to me, but instead to the girl, maybe his sister?

He says "Astrid, are you okay?" and her reply of "yeah, Hiccup, thanks" tells me that it is more likely to be a two party relationship, non-familial. I, for the first time since I remember, take off the scarf and hood that conceal my identity.

The chief, Hiccup as he is known, takes a second look at me and notices my green eyes they are glowing faintly, that and the scars that adorn my face also grab his attention, he sees the two biggest, one takes a slight curve down the right half of my face, hitting my eyebrow, right eye, a lot of space, my lip, and down to my chin. The second one takes a slant from left to right, from my forehead, onto the bridge of my nose and intersects the first around midway down my cheek. My hair is silver, not by choice or age, but I was born that way, also, I was born with long canine teeth. They are sharp enough to chew through tough leather without any trouble.

In the village I was born in I was cast out as a child, my fortune turned when I met a traveling family, when I was twelve their son and I were the only two to escape a dragon attack on the village, he blamed me and nearly killed me that night. I could only just outrun and outmaneuver him. After that I just kept running, I would not be killed by him I vowed, unless we were going at the same time.

As I start getting back on by feet he sheathes his sword, no, wait, he collapses the blade into the hilt. "Nice trick" I comment as I put my hands down; let me show you something interesting myself I say. I lead them to my boat parked on the shore. As they near it I tell them to wait until I am fully equipped. I pick up my bags, bandolier, and mace in its holster. They stare, mouths agape, as I put my hood up and they see my eyes glow even more brightly, I give them a demented grin, showing them my fangs. I told them then, not to judge, but I was nicknamed (R) "beast'" at my home village. I loved the woods, and I could speak the language of the animals easily. I walk back with the group that greeted me: a braggart, the chief and his girlfriend, a fat nerd that is stronger than he looks, and a set of twins that ride the gas spitting dragon.

I walk back with the odd group and then realize that they all must have their own dragons. I would guess that the fat one has a Gronckle; the black headed boy that thinks highly of himself probably has a monstrous Nightmare, the girlfriend, Astrid, probably has a deadly Nadder, and if I remember correctly the twins would have to have the same dragon, so a hideous Zippleback would be my best guess. As for Hiccup, I could not tell, probably something exotic, I saw it and I would guess flight mare by the shape, but that was just a guess, I could not tell in the mist. I only know this because as (R) "beast'" I know about the personalities of different dragons, well beasts actually. On the other hand I am very adept at the use of weapons and martial arts. I notice a glint, the sun, (R) "shit!" I exclaim as I remember the race. I then take the only logical course of action and remind them.

They all whistle simultaneously and all of the dragons appear. I was right about all of the dragons, except for one; the Chief's dragon is… a night fury? I could have sworn that Drago had killed all but a few and drove the rest into hostile territory down south… hey this is berk, they used to live on freezing to death along with some of the other harder dragons. "All of the rough dragons are now hopeless" I remember one of his lieutenants saying, or was it on hopeless? I do not realize that I said this all out loud and come back with them all staring at me. "What are you all gawking at; get your asses to the race! I will meet you here later" I instruct them.

While they are gone I eat my ration, a stale biscuit, some old cheese, and a small hunk of salted meat. I wash it down with my cider and a handful of berries. I see the group fly by me three times before they finally land over an hour later. I tell them to stay well away for now and I navigate around my various tripwires and pitfalls. None of them are harmful yet, but I take no unnecessary chances.

The fat one introduces himself as Fishlegs, the twins as Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and the egotist as Snotlout. I know the rest already and introduce myself as Jaeger; I do not know my real last name so I continue with Bludvest. They all seem uneasy and place their hands on their weapons. I tell them not to worry; even I know that my uhm, "brother" is a horrible person.

I show them my weapons collection. First is my mace, it is flanged and has a balance about nine inches below the center of the shaft. Next are the three hatchets, all with curved ten inch handles to facilitate throwing, I also carry an atlatl with three short javelins, as well as a broad bladed machete like short sword with a stabbing point. They all find these to be wondrous things; every single one is light but sturdy. I move next onto my wrist equipment. A blowgun is attached to one, a crossbow/ grappling hook on the other; both carry retractable wrist blades, palm spikes, and karambits one on each. I show them the bandolier last, it carries all of my expendable devices, darts, crossbow bolts, stun bombs of various sorts, and throwing knives are all kept stored on this strap.

My armor is mostly leather, with a bit of metal scaling. In my packs I have twelve days of food, seventeen of drink, a used bedroll, a shelter kit, various items to assist in trapping and thieving, some cooking supplies, and my old shovel. It has a blood smear on it I know not what from. All that I know is that I am a mercenary of sorts, specializing in camouflage judging by my garb and my spare clothing. I also notice the motif tattooed on my arm that led up to chest, how I could forget that, it is the mark of my old guerilla union, the wild geese.

After all of this time I have lost contact with all of them, except for a few. Hey maybe one is in this village, slim chance though. I ask them if they want to see another trick of mine, a hiding trick. They all seem to not want to see, but I do not care, I go ahead and hide in a patch of brush, they look for me for a good ten minutes. I pop out in front of chief hiccup and make a slightly mocking bow.

As he leads me back to his dragons, he tells me that the only way to properly introduce me to the tribe would be to take me in on one. I opt to ride in on the twins' dragon. As we fly in low over the village, I hop up and do a summersaulting dive onto the ground below and land on my feet. As I watch the riders do a quick turnaround and land around me. My first course of action is to hold up the tattoo that identifies me on my left arm and ask if anyone else has it.

One man, a slightly scarred, burly looking guy steps forward, (R) "Jaeger Bludvest?" he asks, and (R) "in the flesh Eret" I reply. He lowers my hood with his short sword and his doubting expression fades into one of melancholy nostalgia. I break his silence with a simple question that I know will make him uneasy "how's the dragon trapping going, if I recall, that is why we kicked you out of our circle" his reply is a turn for the better, a laugh, he says "that kid over there changed my mind, as well as your brother's inanity and delusions".

I give him a jab in the chest and he winces. I look at him questioningly and he pulls down his collar a bit and reveals a scar that looks more like torture than battle and I wince too. "Let me guess, courtesy of the only man in the world crazier than me" a simple nod suffices to answer, I ask when the last time he saw him was, judging by the ice spikes it was not that long ago. His reply is depressing and enlightening at the same time, "two days plus about six hours, give or take (R) "shit , even if I were to take the fastest dragon on this island, I would not catch him before he had gone home successfully" that was unnecessary, but gave me hope as well.

I ask Hiccup to call a meeting with all of the higher ups of the village. In the meeting I ask where I should stay in the village, they say to just bring my boat around to the harbor. As for the situation of the dragons that were mentioned in the woods, I will lead a scout party on a search for hopeless island. As we fly over the land mass we see many dark shapes shifting in the grass and identify them as many different dragons, all trying to gather at some point, following the chief's dragon. And the dragon is now glowing at certain parts, (R) "holy hell, an alpha dragon, those are a once in a lifetime sight". It makes sense; they all follow the alpha, which is why we have not died yet.

As we land I whisper to a dragon sitting next to me and he replies (D) "the kid shot down the alpha, so he bit his leg off, that is all I know" I thank him and ask him what he does, (D) "lightning is my fire" is his humbling reply. I ask him who his rider is. He says (D) "none, I wish that one of you could at least be open to a new dragon" I say in his language (D) "I have yet to ride my own dragon" (D) "done then, place your hand on my snout and you may ride me" he says. As I do this I feel that I relinquish control of my life for a short time and we walk over to the group, their backs were to us and as his roar turned them around.

"A Skrill?" the fat one shouts in surprise. (D) "So that is what you are called" I whisper to my new friend in ancient draconic, he seems to laugh and replies (D) "I can tell you how old that name gets, or just get me a new one he replies". I think silently and lick my fangs.

(D) "The purest one" my dragon says "is brother to the darkest one" hmm; this will be complicated to explain to the others. I think of a new name, (R) snake .As he prompts me to get on his neck I hop on "so, back to berk?" I ask, genuinely hungry. Snotlout also wants to know, for the same reason.

I get to my boat and we eat lunch there. I introduce them to some of the things that I have, spices that they may have never had and many other good things, such as peaches and cherries. They all seem to enjoy this rare taste of new things, so I tell them that I have more to show them. I give them all some small cakes, we all eat the whole things and close to instantly they all enter an altered state for about two hours, and then they eat a lot.

All I know is that I felt like just sitting there and that all of the sounds seem to make music, and all of the colors are brighter, more defined. I also remember how hungry this makes you after eating them. We all seem to like them and then just start gorging on fish and bread. As we stuff ourselves with food I feel something fall off of my belt, it is a message.

I take it out and read it. "all troops set to move in on the target area, send in the third long ship group with the fifth archers and slingers to cover the land invasion and have the second cavalry flank the position to rout and expose the defenders of berk, signed general in chief of ground forces, rootbark" "this is one of drago's top men, I need to make him gone before something bad happens".

I think of my darts I have many, but few that I could use, not the skin melter, or the bruiser. The tranqs or paralyzers will not work and any psychedelics will have an obvious giveaway. That leaves it at "the example" a dart that, when it hits poisons the target. "Now which one" I pick the obvious choice, madman. This one will make him start hearing voices, followed by sharp stinging pain, after which he will go completely mental and start killing everyone that he sees for ten seconds, if he survives this long the poison shuts down his lungs and heart. This is one that needs a situation to set it up, the pre- war ceremonies should suffice.

I tell the chief of my plan, he disapproves, which does not surprise me, he has seen my addiction to danger and heard of my abilities in combat so, he asks for a test, I am unarmed, save for my palm spikes and karambits; he has his sword and shield.

"I just want to test your abilities"

"Let me take off my weapons then"

Goes the banter as I strip my gloves, my sleeves are all that cover my arms now, and I stand at the ready for an assault from the happy couple. I toss the stuff into a pile and watch as hiccup pulls down his mask and he opens his fiery blade, Astrid pulls out a nimble, but sharp looking battle axe. I look between them, Astrid is more aggressive, she will take more risks, and she also carries some sort of bludgeon, I would guess a hammer. As for Hiccup, he carries a flaming sword that spits gas and fire, also the blade is of its own inherent dangers. His shield is light enough to carry some gadgets, like a grappling hook, or catapult. He is calculated and will look for a weak spot to strike at.

I am unarmed but stronger than they are, and very good at hiding. Astrid comes in first, as I suspected, also Hiccup starts by gassing the place. I simply hop out of the volatile green cloud and Astrid is fast to follow up with a swipe at my feet.

I hop over the axe blade and step on the handle, breaking it out of her grip. I kick it over to my stuff and follow up with a crippling combination move, two elbow strikes, one to the side of the head, the other at the arm, followed by two fast jabs to her stomach and ribs; I finish up with a gastrezian kick to the diaphragm. This ends the fight for poor Astrid.

I underestimated Hiccup's shield the first bola zooms by my chest, narrowly missing it, one more follows, almost hitting my legs. I rush in to keep his ranged weapons out of use, but I am assaulted by three arrows and a small boulder. I almost catch one in the chest, but fortunately I dodge most of them. I catch an arrow in my right shoulder. I simply leave it there and continue to fight this master of engineering.

I close the distance and watch as his sword comes down at me in a fast chop, I deflect it with the only metal part of my sleeves, on the wrist. I watch as it bounces off and I continue to fight with one arm on fire and an arrow in the opposite shoulder. As I see him wind up another sword strike, I twist his shield out of his grip and bring it smack down on his head and I finish him with a disarming kick to his right arm, and a twist kick to his head. After I finish the fight I realize that I am in pain and I pull out the arrow, after that I snuff the flames on my shirt.

As they get up I find a slight comfort in my lack of steel toed boots. I tell them that Drago will not go that easy on them next time. I don my weapons and leave without any medical attention. I almost forget the gas, but at the last moment I remember and use the flint and steel rings to ignite it. As I leave the scene of the explosion I pass out from the venom that coated Hiccup's arrows.

I wake to find the healer's apprentice bandaging my injuries and a night fury is dozing in the corner. I ask what is going on, my reply comes from her. "You took a really bad fight and somehow ya won" answers her kind voice. I still don't know how to prevent sedatives from working in my body. I try to sit up, but slouch.

As I look up I see the surprised look of the healer's apprentice, I ask

"How long was I out?"

"A half an hour at most"

"Yer a strong kid I gotta say"

"I did not know that seventeen was a kid in this town"

"The two you just fought are twenty two"

"I want to know more about this town"

"You already know enough to get by"

Goes the conversation, I ask if the night fury is hers, it gets up and shows a metal leg.

"What happened, was it a trap, or another dragon?"

"A dragon caught her foot during an attack"

"I would guess a whispering death by the scars, probably an infection"

"Wow, you have a great eye, want to meet the man that made that leg?"

"Sure"

I stagger down to the forge with Irene, the healer's apprentice, as we walk I ask "So, rum in the dart?"

"No, whiskey, it is chief's brew, so it is drunk unaltered"

"Hmm, I see, what would happen to me if I were to drink it unaltered?"

"Only the strongest can withstand half an ounce, you were just dosed with one full ounce"

"Good, in a few days maybe I will drink the drink of chiefs"

"Only if you earn it"

We near the forge and I feel the searing heat that liquefies steel. I enter and meet a couple of new people, Gobber, the town smith, and his nephew and apprentice, Furek.

"So, which one of you metal makers are behind the legs?"

"That'll be me" replies Gobber

"Hmm, I see, oh, hey Furek"

"I have a design that Hiccup wanted to duplicate"

"Thanks, I did not know that you would be up so soon"

Says the now shirtless, and one legged chief, I tell him that I will need to scout the island and make sure that the borders and concealed areas are secure. I tell him that I may need company and I see if Furek is up to it.

"Any time for a chance to leave this heat is fine by me" he replies.

He calls his dragon, an ice fang by the looks of it. I ask where he found him

"Around the woods, he was feeding"

"I see he is unique to the island, no?"

"Yeah, just down for the winter, he is like a massive child sometimes"

"With a dragon of that size, I would fear for the smaller ones"

"It used to be a bad habit of his; it was smoothed out over time, though"

"hmm, and how long did that take you, I trained (R)snake this afternoon and I still don't know when to expect what"

"it takes time, unless you, like Hiccup can speak draconic"

"I can, it is kind of scary, I can understand what every animal says, I just want it to stop some days"

"Well I can't say that I know what he thinks half of the time, would you mind?"

"Not at all, so just his opinion of you?"

"Yeah, don't get too attached"

(D) "Hey bud, what's up? Not used to someone talking to you, huh?"

(D) "Yes I am, the one called Hiccup and I speak all of the time, what is your name human?"

(D) "Jaeger Bludvest, brother of Drago"

(D) "I have heard the legends, so, what do you want"

(D) "I just want to know what you think of your rider"

(D) "He is cocky, reckless, stubborn, and has a blatantly obvious crush on that healer girl"

(D) "So, you have a dragon of your own yet? Or are you too scared of knowing what he thinks"

(D) "A Skrill called snake"

(D) "Ah, you are a rus?"

(D) "Yeah, when it snows there, we call it summer"

I tell Furek what his dragon thinks of him and hit the road. I walk past the happy couple, Hiccup and Astrid; their dragoons are fighting over something, so I interject,

(D) "hey you, what are your names?"

(D) "I am toothless, this is stormfly, the gronckle that the fat one rides is called meatlug, the twins fight over a zippleback that they call barf and belch, and the smelly bragging one calls is monstrous nightmare hookfang, your Skrill and I have a past, watch your back. I do not entirely trust him as it stands, mostly because of my tail"

He twists and shows me some jagged scars from a lightning bolt that hit him there.

"Stop trying to intimidate him toothless, sorry jaeger"

(D) "I know what toothless was saying"

(D) "Finally another speaker"

(D) "How long I have waited to communicate with someone in my gifted language"

(D) "We can use draconic to keep Drago from spying on us, this is a great help" I say.

(D) "If you weren't his brother we would not even know that he was coming, I owe you great thanks"

(D) "Perhaps the drink of chiefs would settle that debt"

(D) "Even I have not had any of that"

(R) "you weak man, if did not respect you I would have already poured it down your throat"

"What was that?"

"It was a toast to your health, let us drink to survival, or something like that"

"Um, okay, to the great hall"

I follow him; a large stone statue stands guard at the entrance.

"Hi dad I am drinking the ceremonial whiskey"

He takes out a barrel that has seen better years, it barely holds, but the strong aroma of malt and rye, with a touch of honey, is overpowering.

(R) "Hmm, my homemade gin smells week in comparison"

"I think a half an ounce each is best for now"

"Sounds about right, got a flask?"

"Right here, give me enough for one drought"

We pour and, on the count of three, we swig it back.

(R) "God, that was strong"

"wow, that almost threw me onto my ass, let's not do that again, and please, stop speaking in rus"

"I make no promises, plus I can only taunt Drago in our native tongue, he will try to kill me and fail"

We must prepare for war, this I know for a fact. I gather my weapons and head to the forest to train with my dragon. As I enter I hear a few people trying to step lightly and I tell him to hide, I camouflage myself. I see them all, rootbark is one. Hmm, so the attack plan has begun, time to make the man mad. I select the proper dart and load it into the blowgun

(R) "A madman dart for its living counterpart"

The dart whizzes through the air and finds a mark. He instantly starts looking for water, which will make the fiery pain feel more like acid. I see his confused expression as he starts hearing sounds, murmurs at first, followed by almost screaming sounds, then a hyper focused determined rage.

He easily overpowers the men he is with and kills seven, after which he drops dead himself. I watch in awe as the only survivor looks around and sprints home in horror and mental agony.

I chuckle a little bit and call snake and we fly back to berk. He tells me that he saw all of the action, I need to not do what I did a lot, and it is not a guarantee kill on a glancing blow. I know this already and I keep silent. I notice a shift just in time to dodge some spears flying at me.

(R) "Shoot snake, shoot"

I shout, a lightning blast shatters the entire enemy camp. I see a man fleeing, clutching his head.

(R) "Catch him snake" he dives down and catches him by the arms.

I grab my mace and give him a sharp crack on the head with the handle

(R) "So, do you speak rus, or English, do you speak English?"

(R) "Rus, but that is all I'm telling you"

(R) "I think I will get more, just watch"

(D) "snake, there is dinner at home if you want it, take our guest out for the freshest fish on the island." On that cheery note snake turns our "guest" upside down and drags the top of his head through the ocean.

(R) "How about we drop your head into the water?"

(R) "No, no …_... ack, no more water"

"So, now you will tell me in English, what you know of your boss' plan"

"A group of longboats will come in from the south to transport any captured dragons, there will be a siege on the island in order to distract the dragon riders, after that we will shoot down the alpha, kill his rider, and control the rest"

A formidable plan, if I did not already know that you will only be using one group of slingers and archers on those boats, and the cavalry assault is just a ruse.

"Alright, back to the chief, I must prepare for war"

"Snake, hold his arms and fly us back to the village"

Our prisoner is shivering from the cold water and I have a feeling that he will not survive for long without a fire and some food.

(R) "Let's get home for some food and a nice friggin keg of good beer"

"Sounds good, hey your voice sounds familiar, as does your love of liquor, jaeger, right?"

"Good god, another one of you boys? Tell me, when was the last you heard of Eret?"

"Rumor was around here, no clue though; the rest of our union is being used by Drago as a scout group"

"If you can call them here then I will switch their sides"

"No, my loyalty is to the union"

"Get them here or my dragon will eat you"

(D) "No, I won't"

(D) "He does not know that"

I fly in and give him some food; after he has dried off I fly him to the village and deposit him in front of the chief's house. I knock five times, as dictated by common courtesy, before I barge in.

"Oh, damned, I thought you were predictable"

"Why are you in here?"

"New squealer from my old union, apparently, all of us are either dead or in Berk's forest"

"Let me get a tunic and my leg on, just show me"

"Sure, gotta place for a man such as Roland?"

"Who is Roland, your new friend?"

"Yeah, the best shot in our group by damn sight; he could pop a goose out of the air halfway across berk's forest, and he would be mad about missing the one flying next to it".

I get back to the area where I dropped him and find the tattered remnant of a once-strong mercenary brigade. In all I see maybe a dozen of the fifty that I used to command. Amongst the ragged, beaten men are five weapons experts, two strong men, two diverters, a trapper, an engineer, and a man of stealth, as well as Eret and Roland. To cap it, berk's militia, the dragon riders, and whatever pitiful navy this island possessed, our prospects were not that bright at that moment. I instructed them to mount rams and large bows on some of the ships. On others I instructed them to use catapults and whatever the hell hiccup had invented. I told them to leave the merchant ships and fishing boats in the harbor, but sail the weaponized ships to the cove around the back of the island.

Once that job was through I taught them how to set various man catcher traps, as well as how to use small groups to attack quickly and set the foes off guard on any terrain, be it village, or forest, or hills, or plains. Certain groups were taught how to properly blend in with their surroundings, and to pop up and attack from seemingly nowhere.

I oversaw the operation of fortifying the island and preventing as much permanent damage as possible. I used my beastly call and toothless his to assemble as many wild dragons as we could. I prop up a large shield to protect a catapult crew and talk to a woman in strange turquoise armor.

"Drago, my brother, has taught the most important lesson of my life"

"Hmm, that is killing whatever you want, right?"

"No, never hit someone that hits harder than you, god, he whooped my ass many times to teach me that"

"So, make your point, beastly one"

"Right now I am praying to every god that I know of, that we hit harder than Drago's attack"

"This will bug me for a long time if I do not ask, but is that storm cutter by any chance yours?"

"Yes, cloud jumper is mine"

"Great, may I?"

"Yes, feel free; by the way, I am Valka, Hiccup's mom"

"Thanks Valka, I will only be a moment"

(D) "Cloud jumper, what are you doing to that fish basket?"

(D) "Trying to find my lunch, who ate all of these fish?"

(D) "That was snake, my Skrill; he eats more than the entire village"

(D) "Tell him to stop, I get hungry, too you know"

(D) "Yeah, yeah. I know how you feel"

(D) "I have not eaten in three hours, what kind of barbaric torture could you stand that would be worse than that?"

(D) "No thought of food, sleep, or prospect of warmth for twenty four hours, but I know how you feel, here is some cod"

I watch Hiccup stumble lazily over the docks, I remember what is going on and I walk over to him. I offer him a hand up and he accepts it. I lean back and almost take the boy off of his foot as I pull him up. I talk him through the plan; he and I will trade dragons for the attack. I instruct him on how to lead the assault force on the land; I reassure him that I will be fine. We have constructed bunkers from an old mineshaft and we hunker down in there for a few days, only thirty Vikings ever seen outside at a time, plus the wilderness corps and scout group, no navy and no dragons are seen, all catapults are veiled with cloth to give the appearance of construction projects.

I am graced with fresh air maybe three times before the island is put on alert, all of the traps are set, all defenses are easy to mount, any sailors can get to their ships as fast as they want, and the dragons are pent up in here with their human counterparts. Only the initial force is allowed outside now, no more decoy drills, this is the real deal.

I talk to the chief about the island for the first time in earnest, it may be my last day alive, and so I fill the hall with stories and jokes exchanged. I peer over at the dragon riders, no one is really that animated about the attack, so I suggest that they get some sleep, or eat, or take a piss, I do not care, as long as they can concentrate on the task at hand.

At first light ships are spotted on the horizon. Not twenty, not fifty, not one hundred, but one thousand vessels of war that are all bigger than ours, and each carry at least one hundred soldiers, including those from far off lands, Rome, Egypt, Asia, India, and Russia. Not a single dragon is in sight yet, but judging by the size, Drago and his pet will be there.

I tell hiccup that he will have to create a tail rig that will work on its own if I am to stand a chance riding toothless, also, we will need to switch armor. Our navy is at the very best, fifty light attack ships, and ten troop holders, with the compliment of twenty marine fighters each. Our army is two hundred fifty men, plus the fifty outside for the initial attack, the mariners, and the catapult crews. Our only advantage is home turf, and maybe areal force.

I see ten ships sail swiftly at us and they start to sink promptly as they hit the steel spikes that we set there, the few that we see escape the floundering wrecks swim towards their fleet, and this invasion will be more complicated than they thought. They send in a few more ships, but at this point we have armed our catapults and sink the next thirty with no trouble. As the day progresses, we either sink or turn back three hundred ships in total, through discipline, and precision.

They now see us as a serious threat; those three hundred ships alone could have taken over the island. These ships also served another purpose, to hide the flagship; the massive ark is now in plain view, not to mention perfect range of our long range defenses. We send off a flaming volley at the ship and see at least half of them find a mark and three starts a large fire, this will delay the invasion, I order an immediate light dragon strike, hit with whispering deaths, changewings, and deadly nadders. The formations hit with speed and stealth. The changewings hit first, spraying various weak points with acid, before camouflaging and flying away, next to attack are the whispering deaths and deadly nadders in a joint attack. The whispering deaths drill the hull below the waterline as the nadders strafe the deck with repeated fire and spike attacks.

I watch as the ship starts listing to one side and finally capsizes. I watch in awe as a large White Sea dragon with a black mane is pulled out of the water. It will not survive for long without water on its head, two hours tops. If we can distract the damage control teams until then we may kill it and thus stall the land invasion by several days, as well as greatly reduce their morale. Time for another strike, this time we will hit them hard, smoke breaths and fire worms will set up a perimeter, terrible terrors will enforce it. Gronckles, Zipplebacks, and Nightmares will roast the bastard. As I watch this maneuver unfold I learn quickly that the force was not prepared for such brutal strikes and at least twenty more ships are lost in an attempt to rescue the main ship. As many as five thousand enemy casualties are suffered that day, compared to a few glancing blows and one concussion suffered by our dragons. On top of that the enemy beast is dead.

Hiccup approaches me later and tells me that he disapproves of my fighting style; it is not honorable to kill a beaten foe. My reply is that the foe was not yet beaten, and still is not. Though we have won a great moral and strategically important victory, the foe will press on, surrender is dishonor to them, and therefore we must stay on guard. We will not attack unless directly threatened, or an opportunity to perform a victory blow presents itself. His is still mad at me, but his new leg that I made for him is much more efficient than his old one, lighter and stronger, as well as more resistant to corrosion from the elements, so he is not mad at me for long.

I hear a whistling sound and I realize that it is an invasion force sending in grappling hooks, so I send out a squadron of timber jacks to cut the ropes, and thunder drums to halt the invaders, this ambush almost took out our coastal defenses, so I personally go down to check the damage, it is messy. Two of our batteries are damaged, we get damage control on it as fast as we can, but in terms of human costs five dead, two missing, eight wounded to some degree. We are down to half crew for the catapult artillery; an invasion is now inevitable, unless our miniscule navy can destroy all of the enemy ships.

The night that follows passes uneventfully, aside from a few skirmisher arrows and sling stones from either side, nothing much happens. I caught about two hours of deep sleep that night, knowing very well that I might die the following day in the island defense. As I gain my bearings slowly I realize how long I slept, the sun is breaking the horizon, we report no additional casualties last night, and no invading ships were sent in.

I watch the sea, the wreck from yesterday is still smoldering, but something else troubles me, I see a lone ship sailing in on us with no weapons or really any sails, it just moves, then I realize my trouble, it is a plague ship, it carries diseases on it. My troubles are lost when it hits the spikes and sinks, no more worries. I watch more curiously as they send in another five hundred ships, this leaves them with around two hundred left to fight, best hit the incoming horde of ships while they are out on the water, past the harbor markers. The remainder of our catapults to hit the enemy onslaught and we watch the tide spikes do their damage, in all about two hundred actually reach our shores, only one hundred of those have troops that land on our island, because the traps that we set kill an insanely high number of enemy soldiers, maybe one thousand are allowed up the beach, and our light bowmen and slingers take care of all of them.

We have yet to finish off maybe two hundred fifty ships, all still with possible dragons, though unlikely, as they would have used them by now, they now have at best ten thousand soldiers left, plus the sailors, unfortunately, they still will not surrender, mostly because they still have enough soldiers to flood this island, if they find a way, they will invade, it is their last reasonable chance to kill us all. I watch as they detach maybe fifty ships, time to play in with our navy, we use scauldrons, skrills, and flight mares to keep the big force away from the detachment, and watch as our small fleet pulverizes the enemy ships, after that we oversee the boarding of the enemy ships, we try to take prisoners, but they just jump off of the side, we manage to snag one with a metal hook jabbed through his shoulder, as it was still attached to a rope.

His interrogation was easy, as it turns out, he only taught them basic hand to hand combat, and archery, no one could actually ride a dragon, so they didn't bring any along. Also the main force was supposed to hit the rear of the island, but was already halved by the dragon air force. For once we have an advantage, they only have around two thousand five hundred soldiers and at best one hundred ships left, they are no longer a serious threat, but we still need an opportunity, and seeing as it is still before noon, we will just wait on them, tend our wounded, grieve our dead. We have lost fifteen mariners, and have thirty five wounded, to top it all off, we need to muster what strength we can for an invasion, so we all man our seemingly random posts, in the bog, in the woods, in the cove, in the town, in the mountains, at the riverside, and in the plains, we are all ready to fight, four hundred to two thousand five hundred, never in the field of combat were so many pitted against so few.

The mine is still our base of operations and is filled with the moans of the wounded, I call all of the riders to meet with my union, and all of us will be jumping off of dragons, down into combat, so we need some dragons to jump from. They seem to get the picture and nod in agreement, I tell them of Hiccup and my plan, and they seem to like that a little bit less, but I explain that I am the best fighter amongst us, and I am also able to make Drago loose concentration the most.

As if on cue, we hear the first ships crunch ashore

"To posts all, airborne troops mount your dragons, and pilots do not jump."

"Will you survive this, jaeger?"

"I personally doubt it, but by the time Drago kills me, he will be dying too"

"If you die before you kill Drago, how will we kill him?"

"Shoot him with a dragon; you seem to have more than enough of those"

At this point Hiccup and I have traded armor and dragons, I look at him and realize that this may be the last time I see a friendly face. I take the time to thank him for his hospitality, I take his dragon and then I fly up, no time to loose, the new tail works on its own. I tell him to fly high; I want to watch the invasion happen.

I watch as the swamp landers pop out of the trees and grasses and mud pits, in this entire small group kills a fifth of the invading army. The woodsmen take the biggest toll on the enemy, attacking from the shadows and hiding again. In the river, the cavalry is ambushed, and is eventually forced back. In the grasslands many enemy soldiers that are trying to take the town are killed, and in the town we halt the harbor invasion.

I see my chance, I tell toothless to remain steady. I use all of my expendable weapons in order to suppress and wound the crew.I land on the deck and kill at least three enemy soldiers with my wrist blades and beast claws, and then I draw my main weapons and slaughter at least five more. On that cheery note I finish the crew with my bare hands. My weapons have shaken Drago and I can see the fear in his eyes, I am the only person in the world that can do that to him. I draw my sword and watch him grab his pike and swing wildly at me.

(R) "You were dead, I say you drift"

(R) "Well now we know who the weaker brother is, I may die right now, but I will still have fought through more than you"

(R) "You are right about one thing, you will die now"

(R) "Prove it"

Drago and I square up, I look into his eyes as I take off my mask. I bare my fangs, dripping with venom, in a hideous smile. He starts howling and brings his pike to bear on me; I sidestep his mad attacks and slash him with my short sword, eventually landing a crippling blow in his abdomen. With the muscles that I have split, he can no longer hold himself upright. I plant my sword firmly in his abdomen, feeling it puncture the wooden deck behind it.

(R) "You are through, I have defeated you and I will now sink to your level, humiliation"

(R) "Good luck with that; you always needed to raise yourself above others in order to feel good"

(R) "Then I do you a service by coming down to you one last time"

I see his expression change, from devious treachery, to joy, actual joy. I quickly end his joviality with a quick swipe of my mace across his knee, it bends sideways. I watch as he gathers his breath and looks into my eyes, he opens his mouth to speak to me, but I shush him gently, with my mace, by caving his skull, screw being gentle. I retrieve my mace and realize why he was smiling joyously; he had impaled me with his pike. I cradle it and walk up to the others; we have won the war at this point.

Epilogue: as seen from Hiccup

"He came limping up the hill to us, holding something, I could see in the late morning sun that it was not just to bring it to us. He looked battered and beaten, and a little bit dead already, his eyes no longer shined. He did not speak, and I knew why very quickly, his brother had stabbed his lung out with a pike, the same one he used to direct toothless into killing my dad. He dropped to his knees when he reached us, I swear, all I heard him say was 'thanks kid, I'll see you in another life, also, here is your armor, sorry for the damage'. His face betrayed no emotion, he simply looked to be at peace, his dragon, snake, took him and hauled him up the rest of the hill, but it was already too late, he had died minutes ago. I look upon his funeral feast with longing, I wish I had known him better; I may have saved him that way. Astrid is here, she warns me not to stay too long, and I might go into shock from standing here in the winter cold. I walk into the great hall and watch as a combination victory and funeral feast is served, he would have liked it here, it is nice and peaceful, a man like that needs someplace like this to stay. He may be remembered by the few of his mercenary friends that survived the attack; we nearly lost one hundred lives in the defense of Berk, and his was no more or less than any other fallen warrior. I can hear his friends swear allegiance to our archipelago, 'never above you, never below you, always beside you' I will not forget what snake did for me either; he saved the invasion alongside toothless many times. I just wish he were still here, his sarcasm and dry sense of humor, his cooking skills and likewise his fighting skill. He is gone, he will live on, and he will be remembered.


End file.
